For hundreds of years, men and women have been shaving their faces and bodies. And for about the same length of time, the industry has been controlled by a ruling minority. But that’s changing.
In the US, startups such as Dollar Shave Club and Billie have been challenging the Gillettes and Schicks of the world for market share over a task many of us perform daily (though Billie was bought by Schick’s owner, Edgewell, in 2021). In Australia, disruption has been slower, but two new, female-founded brands are trying to make shaving easier and, in the case of one, far more luxurious.
Have women been shortchanged when it comes to shaving? These founders think so.Credit: iStock
People may know Rebecca Harding as a model, influencer and fiancee of TV personality Andy Lee (Lee works for Nine, the publisher of this masthead). Now, she can add entrepreneur to her CV after teaming with beauty and content specialist Ingrid Kesa to launch LUI, a brand centred around a razor that would look at home in any bathroom “shelfie”.
The pair spent three-and-a-half years developing LUI, during which time they spoke to hundreds of women about their attitudes to hair and hair removal. “We found that 98 per cent of women, regardless of whether they have had laser hair removal still own and use a razor regularly,” says Harding. “In fact, it was one of the products that was most used but most disliked in their shower recess.”
While the LUI razor is conventional in its shape, Harding says the category has been lacking a luxury product for women, where plenty exist for men from brands including Le Labo, Lorenzi Milano and Aesop. “Personally, I shave a much larger surface area than my partner, yet I found nothing created specifically for the way in which many women choose to shave,” she says.
As beauty standards shift away from attractive equalling hair-free, Harding says more women want a hair-removal solution that isn’t permanent, so they can tailor it to their needs, and even their hormonal cycles. “Unfortunately, the so-called women’s shaving brands that we grew up with were developed by men,” she says.
LUI co-founders Rebecca Harding (left) and Ingrid Kesa.
Indeed, the safety razor has been around since the 1700s, but really took off during the 1900s under King Camp Gillette, who, according to the company’s website, was the original shaving disruptor. Gillette’s disposable razor gave men an alternative to visiting a barber three times a week for a clean shave. Although women are thought to have shaved their body hair since Ancient Egypt, it was in 1915 that Gillette first marketed a product specifically to women.
Still, the core design of the razor has not changed in more than 100 years, which prompted Sydney-based occupational therapist Susan Parry in late 2023 to lunch Reset, a compact razor she says is more ergonomic not only for women but all body hair removal, irrespective of gender. The $25 razor can be used with three different grips, all designed to keep the wrist in a neutral position as much as possible.
“Literally, they [Gillette] turned the men’s shaver upside down and said, let’s market it to [women],” she says, adding that making it “sparkly, pink, [and] rotate slightly at the head” does not make up for the fact that wrist control is “completely compromised” by using a traditional – that is, men’s – razor on the body.
Marian Makkar, a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT University, says disruption can be difficult in categories where consumers have strong brand loyalties, including shaving. Still, she agrees that a “cultural shift” around body image is creating opportunities for new businesses that can embrace those values from the start and not have to “gear change” like the big players.
The Reset razor is challenging more conventional shavers.
Makkar says brands such as LUI are smart to “luxurify” a mass category because they can also lean on the argument that their product – LUI’s razor costs $50; refills are extra – is more sustainable by encouraging reuse. She says many disruptors, such as Uber, have also tapped in to consumers’ desire for accessible luxury and experiences.
“If you look at Uber, we can all ride in a BMW, which is basically luxury … or Airbnb, where you can stay in a castle for a weekend,” she says. “Consumers seem to be wanting that uniqueness aspect, they don’t want the mass.”
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